New West condo allegedly linked to weapons, drug trafficking is subject of forfeiture
Credit to Author: Gordon Hoekstra| Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2020 01:21:46 +0000
A New Westminster condominium allegedly linked to weapons trafficking and money laundering is the target of forfeiture by the province.
In a B.C. Supreme Court suit, the province, through the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office, also seeks to have forfeited $30,000 in cash seized at the condo by B.C. police.
Named in the suit are Dean William Twiss and his wife, Eileen Michelle Wong.
Wong is listed as the owner of the mortgaged condo in the Queensborough neighbourhood of New Westminster, assessed at $614,000.
The civil forfeiture office seeks forfeiture of the condo as proceeds of crime and for money laundering. The accusations filed in the suit also include possession of weapons obtained by crime, production of drugs, possession of drugs for trafficking and failure to declare taxable income.
Neither party has responded to the civil suit that contains allegations not proven in court.
Neither Twiss or Wong have been charged criminally. The threshold for proving a civil forfeiture claim is lower than for a criminal conviction, a balance of probabilities instead of beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to the civil claim, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. obtained a warrant and searched the condo after the Canadian Border Services intercepted a package addressed to Twiss that contained an illegal silencer for a firearm
Twiss had a previous conviction for possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and a prohibition on possessing firearms, and had been the subject of an earlier investigation into importing illegal firearms, according to the filing in court by the civil forfeiture office.
The police search of the condo in September 2019 turned up firearms and parts, including those produced from a 3D printer. The printers, one of which was also seized at the condo, are capable of producing three-dimensional objects from a computer-aided design, usually from plastics.
The firearms seized from the condo included a 3D printed handgun, a Russian SKS semi-automatic rifle, a Remington 870 pump-action shotgun, a Marlin Papoose semi-automatic rifle and a 1911 Gorman handgun, some of which were stored in a child’s bedroom, according to the suit filed by the civil forfeiture office.
Also seized from the condo were ammunition, counterfeit ID and credit cards, including a counterfeit driver’s licence and a counterfeit firearms’ licence in Twiss’ name.
Among the items seized was also a sheet of counterfeit security holograms mimicking those found on B.C. driver’s licences.
The $30,000 in Canadian currency was found in a safe.
The police also seized drugs from the condo, including fentanyl, the synthetic opioid U-4770 and cannabis concentrate, some of which was stored in a child’s bedroom, according to the filing by the civil forfeiture office.
“The police observed that one of the bedrooms at the (condo) had been converted into a cannabis extraction and steroid manufacturing lab,” the civil forfeiture’s claim stated.
Also seized at the condo was a book containing records of transactions, including entries on sales, collections and debts, known as a score sheet.